The thing about blogging about wedding planning…

…is that there’s essentially nothing I can share about what I’m actually planning.

Here are some reasons for that, in order of importance:

1) Feelings. If you have ever planned a wedding, then you know how complicated it can be. There are many people with lots of complex feelings to consider. In short, not everyone who may read this blog will be invited to the wedding. Of course there are some of you whom I’ve never met, but there are also readers out there that I have known and loved for a long time. Without getting into the nitty gritty, it’s hard to think about it sometimes. I would love to have a party with everyone I’ve ever cared about, simply to be able to have a hug and refresh memories. That is not realistic. Frankly, I’ve shed more than a handful of tears about the guest list. It’s so hard.

2) Mystery. I want people to be surprised! That’s fun, right?

3) Commitment is scary. If I were to write about how I were SO EXCITED to make Item A for our wedding decor and oozed on and on about it and then it didn’t work out or I found another idea or what have you… then I would feel like an idiot.

4) I don’t really want to be “that girl” that never shuts up about her wedding plans. But currently this is a wedding blog, so just don’t read it if you don’t want to know. And if it happens in person, please politely ask me to shut it and I will.

So though I am thinking about our wedding often and working my ass off on several different projects at once, I’m going to save pretty much everything for the recap. I hope you understand.

Guess what… our wedding will not look like this.

Rainy NYC City Hall Wedding

Ok, let’s pretend that I have no emotional connection to this wedding at all… There’s this wonderful girl out there named Kayla (who just happened to work at the same school I did for two years and became a great friend) who got married at Manhattan’s City Hall’s in September. There’s something to be said for keeping it simple the first time around. You get to have something small and intimate with your honey and then there’s always room for a big party later on. No one ever said you can’t have two weddings to the same person, RIGHT?! Kayla and her man, Tiho, chose photographer Alice Gao to capture their day, and I think she did a spectacular job. The clouds opened up and dumped rain in the middle of their Brooklyn Bridge photoshoot and made for some spectacular images. A wet knot is hard to untie, so they say!

Check out the entire Kayla & Tiho experience! So happy for you two, lovebirds!

BOOM! COLOR EXPLOSION!

I discovered this amazing wedding on 100 Layer Cake’s blog (always the first I visit when I allow myself study breaks). Rachel and Dustin got hitched in Fullerton, California, and their wedding was absolutely bursting with color. The couple took on dozens of do-it-yourself projects, and I’m doing the same. When I find myself worrying and wondering if it can be handmade AND look polished, I look through Rachel and Dustin’s pictures and feel assured that I can pull it off.

Awesome. Fun and lighthearted and beautiful and personal. And more in 100LC’s post. Rachel also writes her own blog, Heart of Light, where she shares her excellent taste in areas beyond wedding-ing. HOWEVER she has written many posts about the planning and execution of her wedding and I really appreciate their candid nature. She doesn’t hold back: I felt so sad for her when I read her post about their negative food truck experience (important to read if you’re considering cashing in on this trending wedding food experience!), but I’m so glad she shared… it helps to ready myself for some unexpected mishaps.

Vendors: Jagger Photography

Alex and I got engaged more than a year ago, in August. Though we ended up legally wedding this past June, we are still (of course!) planning a service and reception for next summer. Every bride has to identify her priorities, and mine was photography. After exchanging emails, collecting a number of quotes, and searching deep into blog archives, we selected our photographers… they were the first vendors we booked, and we took care of business way back in January 2011. I don’t mess around.

We selected Jagger Photography, a husband-wife team from Bellingham, Washington. It may be a long way for them to travel for our Massachusetts celebration, but every time I see a new wedding or engagement shoot on their blog I am ever happier with our choice (I even get excited when I see posts about Heather’s pregnancy and the epic 70′s nautical theme they chose for their baby’s nursery).

I could show you about a hundred photos of theirs that I love, but it would take me hours to search through their blog for all of my favorites and the grad school workload just can’t be pushed off for that long. Their latest post was of a wedding they shot near Orcas Island, Washington. This couple, Robin & Matt, held their tiny wedding on their sailboat. These are some of my favorite shots from this particular wedding shot by Heather & Grayson, the awesome twosome that is Jagger Photography.

One of the reasons I love Jagger is because of their amazing way of capturing people. This next photo? So much personality.

I love the creative eye that they have – seeing a beautiful shot that not just anyone would see. The rounded curves of the rowboat, the green of the water, the angles that the oars create, and the smile on the groom’s face as he rows out to get hitched… incredible.

And oh, lord, the way they play with light. In my own (amateur) work, I mess around with sun flares and glares and side-light, etc. and Jagger just takes it to a totally different level. The warm sun, the crisp focus of the ripples in the water. I love this next one. It is not only a beautiful wedding photograph, it is art.

Peruse the whole of Matt & Robin’s wedding here, and much more of Jagger Photography’s work here. I just can’t wait to have them make our pictures next summer.

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All photographs original work of Jagger Photography

Paul + Joanne

In my semi-regular bridal blog perusals, I found this lovely post about Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward on Snippet & Ink. Kathryn posted a number of beautiful photos that capture the 50 years of love between these two people.

Yes, they were famous, but more importantly, I think they were lucky to have found each other and made each other laugh for so long.

See the full post here, along with an incredible quote about marriage from Joanne.

PHOTOGRAPHS!!!! By Jasmin Ortiz

Here I am!! And here are my favorites from our Brooklyn Municipal Building wedding. Ms. Jasmin Ortiz was so wonderful and flexible. She captured what I’d hoped for and so much more.

This one with the balloon absolutely takes my breath away. I almost can’t believe it’s a photograph of us!

Jasmin did an amazing job capturing us and the Brooklyn-ness of our wedding. It’s even more special to me to have these now that I’m 3000 miles away. Just these few make me a little emotional. Today, we’ve been married for 3 months exactly. Here’s to many more!!!

DIY Bodega Bouquet

The day before our Brooklyn Municipal Building wedding, my mom and I went to a bodega on 7th Avenue in Park Slope and scooped up a few bouquets. I knew I wanted something bright and wildflower-esque so I scooped up a mixed bouquet that included sunflowers, little clustery flowers, and a few different greens (please forgive my lack of floral knowledge!), a bunch of vibrant purple statice, and a bouquet of spray roses in a beautiful coral color.

Grand Total = $18.

Disclaimer: I completely improvised all of this with the help of a few videos I found online.

We stationed ourselves on the floor of the bedroom (the only room in our apartment with an effective air conditioner) and sorted out the flowers by type.

I began by scooping up some greens and statice to start the center of the bouquet, and rotated it to add some of the larger blooms. At one point I had the entire bouquet formed but decided to take it apart and trim more of the leaves off my flowers.

I really liked the asymmetrical look of clustering the same flowers near each other. The green accents popped out from the bright bloom colors, and some of the unique shapes stood out a little bit more.

I held the stems tightly together while I continued to add flowers and greens. One of the challenges for me was making sure the bouquet looked interesting in both color and shape – I absolutely loved the way those berries (below) jumped out and created an almost architectural accent.

Once the flowers were all in place, I tightly wrapped the stems with green floral tape. Everyone always talks about how you can find anything in NYC, but I couldn’t find floral tape anywhere. Florists wouldn’t sell me a roll of it, hardware stores didn’t carry it, and big-box craft stores are nowhere to be seen. My mom picked it up for me at a suburban Michael’s and brought it with her.

After taping, I used pruning shears to trim the stems so they were flat and even.

Sunflowers and baby’s breath. Let me just say – baby’s breath has a lame reputation for no reason. It’s beautiful and delicate and was one of the few parts of the bouquet that didn’t look sad by the end of the evening.

A helpful tip I learned from the internet – refrigerate your flowers overnight, but don’t let them touch the sides of the fridge or they might freeze. With a little shelf-rearranging, we made that happen. My flowers lived next to the milk overnight.

In the morning, not long before departing, I wrapped a navy blue bandana around the floral tape and tied it in a simple knot.

The finished product, in action:

After 30 minutes of transit, an hour at the Municipal Building, 25 more minutes of transit and 2 hours of pictures in 83 degree sunshine, my blooms were very wilted. I had read that you can use hairspray on them to keep them perky, but I didn’t try it for fear of screwing up my beautiful flowers (one spectacular advantage to having two weddings is that I learn these things now and can find solutions for next year).

I am no expert at floral arrangements, but I was happy with mine. It didn’t need to be a big ordeal, and it certainly didn’t need to be expensive. $18 was just right for the casual city wedding we had envisioned. Feel free to ask any questions you dream up!!

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Bouquet making process photographs by my dear mother, Sary.

Subway portrait by my sister and Best Lady, Casey.

City Wedding: Style

One month to plan, no decorations, no band or DJ, no catered food, no bridal party, photographer set, locations set, low-key everything… what is left to plan for a casual city wedding? The outfits. This is where we had the most flexibility and control over the style of our city wedding. And, I’ll be totally honest, I was thrilled at the idea of having a city wedding dress and a country wedding gown. Mmm hmm, yes please – TWO dresses! Once I found a dress, the rest fell into place. There was a shoe shopping saga that involved hours of searching all over Brooklyn and Manhattan, but I prevailed and the whole ensemble worked beautifully.

THE BRIDE!

Shoes: Cole Haan Air Haven. The Nike Air technology definitely makes these WAY more comfortable than other heels… however, they are still 4″ tall which makes the feet hurt after a spell. I took them off for part of the 1 mile Prospect Park walk, but then put them back on and stayed in them ’til almost 10pm.

Flowers for hair: EmersonMade Ballet Dahlias in cream. I wore two in my hair and Alex wore one as his boutonniere!

Bag: Clare Vivier La Troépzienne. Is anyone at all surprised about this? A city girl needs a bag for her city wedding and this one was PERFECT for it.

Dress: River Island Belted Chiffon & Lace Dress from Asos. I got the sleeves shortened to elbow length (didn’t want to feel like a pirate on my wedding day…) and swapped the belt out for a Banana Republic stitched number that was closer in color to the shoes. I opted for a short dress for this year since it was a casual event and because when you get to choose two wedding dresses, why not?

Earrings: BORROWED from my sister. These (pictured above) are the most similar I could find on the internet.

Flowers: On Wednesday my mom and I went to a bodega on 7th Avenue in Brooklyn, bought a bright and summery mixed bouquet, a bundle of statice in that vibrant purple you see on flower stands all spring and summer, and a bouquet of coral/orange spray roses. All for $18!!!!!!We spent an hour on the floor of my bedroom trimming and making my asymmetrical bouquet for Thursday. I have pictures of the whole process to share with you soon! The picture above is the actual bundle, in the fridge, waiting patiently for Thursday.

Bandana: I borrowed Alex’s navy bandana to act as “something blue” and to tie my bouquet. I had grand plans to tie my flowers with a handkerchief that had belonged to my grandmother, but could not find it ANYWHERE. I was upset for awhile but trust I’ll find it in the moving process and will save it for next year.

Something Old: Not pictured… My mom let me wear my great grandmother’s amber ring engraved with “Christmas 1891″ on the inside.

Alex got a little worried for a spell – he thought he might have to buy something new because I was buying something(s) new… but I assured him, he need not fret. The only new purchase he made for the entire ensemble was a lovely casual brown Cole Haan oxford shoe. The rest came from his current wardrobe.

THE GROOM!

Vest & Pants: From the Italian Wool Aldridge Suit collection at J.Crew. Both Navy. He bought these last year to wear in B&C’s wedding, wears them often, and was pleased as punch that I voted for him to wear them again.

Spectacles: Warby Parker Huxley in Whiskey Tortoise. Alex is a glasses man, and these have been his frames of choice for months now. I just wanted to make sure they made it into the style roundup since they are such a distinctive part of his everyday style, and his wedding style.

Shirt: Chambray. I bought Alex’s for him from L.L. Bean Signature, but they haven’t got it available anymore. This one is very similar (though pricier) and from J.Crew.

Belt: Something like this one from J.Crew but not exactly.

Shoes: Couldn’t find the real thing online. He wore the Cole Haan Dryden Oxford purchased at Nordstrom Rack. Pictured here are the Cole Haan Air Colton Casual Oxford in a similar brown with light stitching like his have.

Boutonniere: One of the EmersonMade Cream Ballet Dahlias.

Pocket Watch: Colibri Mechanical Skeleton Pocket Watch. It was a gift I got him, so I won’t link to it… That’s just too easy. He hooked the chain to his belt loop and kept it in his pants pocket – tres chic.

Tie: Another gift from me to Alex. I bought him one kind of like this in Paris in November.

Tie Clip: J.Crew Skinny-tie Tie Clip. Yet another gift. This one, however, I linked for you because I feel bad about playing hard to get on other gifts.

And though I am totally holding out on other pictures, this is one of my favorites that my dear sister took on the way to the Brooklyn Municipal Building – so you get the whole look! Bride and Groom together!

AWWWWW!!!!!

More posts to come… DIY bouquet, photographs from friends and family, photographs from Jasmin and whatever else I come up with! Any suggestions or requests?

City Wedding: Location + Transportation

In case you didn’t see this, we are married!! Last Thursday was a tremendous whirlwind and it was nothing short of spectacular. I have so many details to share, but I’ll pace myself. Today: the places and getting between them.

As you know, Wedding Part 1 was a practical solution to a practical problem. Health insurance for both of us! We are still planning to have a more intimate (read: less businesslike, with actual emotion) ceremony next June 30th, so we wanted this year’s festivities to be as casual and low-key as possible.

One of the easiest ways to do that – simple locations. Obviously a “City Hall” wedding dictates a certain venue. In New York City, you can choose to get married at any one of the five borough’s City Clerk’s offices (none of them are at City Hall, actually). We chose the Brooklyn Municipal Building for its convenience to trains, for its old fashioned beauty, but most of all because Brooklyn has been our home for the past two years and we much prefer it to the other boroughs (sorry, guys).

Photo: Wally Gobetz via Flickr

The City Clerk’s office in Manhattan is all freshly renovated and modern – while that’s nice for some folks, it’s not really our thing. The Brooklyn Municipal Building has beautiful original details everywhere from its 1924 completion – marble walls, gold lettering, wrought iron railings, etc. – so much charm for photographs. Huge benefit of this location – much less busy! We showed up at 12:30, and by the time we were leaving after the ceremony (45 minutes later), the line had lengthened significantly (lunch hour weddings??).

For transportation, we couldn’t think of anything more efficient and affordable for 12 people than the subway. And honestly, I was thinking of how great it’d look in the photos.

Photo: alexf1986

Beautiful, no? Also, we’re really not taxi people so riding the subway on our wedding day fit our NYC style. While we won’t live forever in Brooklyn, our engagement and legal wedding have occurred here, so I very much love that we will have this part of our life together immortalized in photos.

Because I wanted proper artistic photographic documentation of our wedding this year, we had to forgo an “engagement shoot.” Because of that, I built a chunk of portrait time for the two of us into the day. Again, keeping to our Brooklyn and low-key themes, our portraits were at the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Arch at Grand Army Plaza and in Prospect Park.

Photo: Jeffrey O. Gustafson via Wikipedia

Photo: Alex756 via Wikipedia

We spend so much time in Prospect Park that it seemed quite suitable. One of the main appeals of our apartment is its 4-block-proximity to the park. We play bocce, we run and bike, we have picnics, we see Celebrate Brooklyn shows, we stomp around in snow – it is our urban backyard. Where else would we have our portraits taken for our casual city wedding? We also had to fit this additional photography into our total budget. We couldn’t afford to fly out next year’s photographers, Jagger Photography, so we wanted to find someone local for the task. Jasmin Ortiz and I have worked together for two years and she turned out to be the perfect fit for our budget and for the day. We’re still eagerly awaiting all the results, but the sneak peaks are promising!!

We walked about a mile from Grand Army Plaza (winding our way through the park, stopping for many pictures and for some shoe-removal [you'll see why when the style post goes up]) down to our favorite bar – The Double Windsor. We moved to our neighborhood on the border of Park Slope and Windsor Terrace in August of 2009. It seemed like the most beautiful fate that a casual and comfortable urban-rustic bar with a spectacular but not overwhelming rotating draught list would open in September  of that year, just three blocks from our house.

Photo: Sam Horine

We tossed around a few ideas for post-nuptial fun – should we have a formal lunch or dinner with family? Should we pick a place with outdoor space? Why would we even bother with any of that when we have a place where we love to go weekly and where we’re on a first name basis with almost all the bartenders? The Double Windsor is our Cheers. Plus the aesthetic matched the casual feel of our day, and you pay for drinks and food as you want them – excellent when we had many people dropping by at various points through the evening.

Everything went off without a hitch, and by the end of the day our faces were tired from smiling so much. So many of our people were there to make it special, to bring sweets and flowers and laughter. Almost all of our family was there, and while we missed my brother day-of, he did call on Saturday morning from Prague to wish us well. To be surrounded by such love when we are so completely in love is the most beautiful thing ever.

More details to come. Next up: the outfits.

Only a day away…

TOMORROW! Wedding Part 1: The City Edition.

I hope you don’t mind I’ll be M.I.A. for a little while. I’m getting married tomorrow.